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Marketing Conveyancing Services in Quieter Times

With most solicitors seeing a sharp downturn and many new house builders reducing their workforces considerably, marketing conveyancing services for solicitors has been high on the agenda.

Despite a declining conveyancing market, there are still so many opportunities you can be exploring to keep your department profitable and this is the main feature this month. Whilst this article is written with conveyancing in mind, it applies to every area of legal service, so apply it to all of your departments for even more rewards.

Even in a quiet market it is possible to gain new sources of business. It is true that it might take some more effort, but putting that effort in now whilst you are quiet will ensure that when the market picks up again, as it certainly will, you will be ready to reap the rewards.

Existing Referrers

One of my first starting points with marketing is always my Jack and Jill quote:

Before you put more water into the bucket, fix any leaks

So often I see firms chasing new work sources as the "Holy Grail" whilst ignoring their current referrers, often leading to a breakdown in the relationship. Put all of your energy at first into ensuring that you are doing absolutely everything possible to keep your current referrers happy, then start doing more for them. Now is the time to live by the phrase "under promise and over deliver".

If you are feeling the pinch, your referrers are too, so do all you can to help them. Try sending referrals back to them, speak to them regularly to ask how their business is (not mentioning your own) and show "genuine" concern.

If they call you to ask for progress on a transaction, you have not been doing enough, you should have called them first. Remember that you are not the only solicitor "hungry for more work", but your competitors are too. If you are not looking after your referrers and their clients, they may be stolen away from you. Now is not the time to be losing referrers.

Existing Clients

Following on from the first point, now is the time to blow your existing clients away with your amazing service. With less transactions taking place, you should have more time on your hands to do an outstanding job for your clients. However, I know from my 14 years experience that what can often happen is that a fee earner will slow down so that the little work they do have fills the time available. This could be fatal. Now is the time to double your efforts. If you can finish your workload by 12pm excellent, that gives you five or six hours to think of new ways of bringing in more business, and testing out some ideas in this newsletter. Please do not allow your fee earners to slow down (see below for more ideas on getting more from your team).

What more can you do for your existing clients? Here are some thoughts:

1. Exchange as soon as possible.
   Your clients are either buying now because they have found their dream home or have spotted a bargain, or they are selling because they need to move before the market drops any further. DO NOT LET THEM DOWN IT IS NOW TOO IMPORTANT TO THEM AND TO YOU. Be ready to exchange before your clients expect it. Work to a deadline a week or two before your clients have requested and then offer them an early exchange. Explain that you are aware of their needs and have done all you can to bring things forward for them. This "over and above" way of thinking will pay dividends for you.
2. Communicate With Your Clients As Often As You Can.
   So often it is the little things that can make a huge difference. I have seen many solicitors doing an excellent job but failing to tell the client. Now is the time to ensure that the client knows how much you do and how well you do it by communicating with them as soon as any and every important development takes place.
3. Surprise Your Clients
   If you do now have more time on your hands from a quieter market, how could you use that time to "wow" your clients? If you operate in a local market, can you pick the keys up from the estate agent for your clients and meet them on the doorstep of their new home with a welcome card? Could you deliver some flowers, drop off some coffee for them, or some chocolates or wine? I can imagine the reaction of some of you as you read this now (these marketing guys what are they like.) but just stop and think about this for a moment. We are talking about time, which you have more of, and a few pounds of expense, but what are the potential rewards?
   
   What happens when people move home? Everyone that they know pops around to see them and welcome them to their new home, imagine the potential conversation.
   
   "Wow what lovely flowers, who are they from"? "My solicitors dropped them around." "You are joking, your solicitors sent those to you, which firm is that"?

FREE PERSONAL ENDORSEMENT X 10 VISITORS TO THEIR HOME. I think that is far more powerful and cheaper than a £150 advertisement in your local newspaper. Is this marketing man still mad now?

Definition of Marketing?

There are thousands of definitions for the term "Marketing" but my definition is simple to remember and for me works every time I am working on a marketing project for a solicitor:

Marketing = "CLIENTS FIRST"

If you put your clients first in absolutely everything you do for them then you will stand out head and shoulders above other solicitors and they will become one of your best referral sources.

Get More From Your Team

If you generally have monthly department meetings, have them weekly or even daily. Bring the team together to think of new ideas to market your conveyancing services. They will be worrying about their position now, so including them and showing them that you want to keep them and value their contribution is absolutely vital. Take them out of the office to a nice hotel or coffee shop to put them in a more creative mood, then talk freely about opportunities. Remember that "sales and marketing" is not most solicitors comfort zone so you will need to encourage them and at no point put their ideas down. Do not dismiss any ideas but write them all down and when you have exhausted them all you can start to explore in more detail which ones to invest some more time into.

Getting more from your existing fee earners in terms of sales and marketing is one of the most cost effective ways of generating new business (you are paying them already so any ideas are free). I run a half day sales and marketing course for fee earners which is always very rewarding for me and for the firm I am working with. If you would like more information please let me know.

Moving Time?

The average person moves home every seven years. If you do not have a database now would be an excellent time to go through your basement and put onto a simple excel spreadsheet the names and addresses of all of your clients who completed a purchase six to eight years ago. From this you can create a letter to send to them all and merge into it from Word. This is really simple to do, but can be incredibly effective. If you need a "help sheet" on how to mail merge please let me know and I will email one across to you.

The letter should remind your client that they moved home X years ago and that you would be delighted to help them move home again when they next decide to move. Explain that as you completed their last purchase you are ideally placed to prepare their Home Information Pack before they choose an Estate Agent. You can then control a referral back to an estate agent. (Boots, other feet, priceless)!

Using Footfall

If you have a High Street presence make the most of passing trade. If you do not yet have a pavement "A Board" now might be the time to invest a small amount in doing so. If you have one but have not changed the message, again now would be a good time. Whilst I know that some solicitors might consider them to be a little "tacky", if professionally designed and copywritten with a "strong sales message" they can drag people from the street into your offices.

For a solid range of A Boards with ready made posters, see
LawBoards - A Boards for Solicitors now (opens in new window).

What Else?

As with all of my marketing for my clients, I have tried to cover areas that can give you the quickest and most cost effective return on your investment. Telemarketing to new mortgage brokers or estate agents in your local area to drum up new referral sources, local advertising, website marketing can all be used to bring in more business but at a cost.

Perservere or Perish?

I know from past experience in private practice that marketing is often the first expense to be cut when the market becomes quieter. I also know that this can be a fatal decision to a firm (yes I am bound to say that I know).

Marketing is like a train. It takes time, effort and energy to move a heavy train from standstill on the track. However, once the momentum slowly builds the train moves swiftly along the track and, if you have ever smelt the strong smell of the brakes, takes an awful lot of power to break that momentum. If you build marketing and constantly add more and more marketing tools to your practice, success will inevitably follow. The momentum will build and you cannot fail to grow (or at least maintain position) in your practice. Take no action, or give up before full speed has been attained, and your marketing train will not leave the station.

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